With slumping bus sales, Daimler is closing Orion International, thus exiting the North American transit bus market. This leaves only four major transit bus manufacturers in the United States (New Flyer, Gillig, Nova Bus, and NABI) and only two in Canada (New Flyer and Nova Bus).

Personally, I think what was part of the problem with Orion is that they generally bid too high in RFPs to the point that it is uncompetitive for most TAs. In the past year, more TAs have been awarding contracts to the lowest bidder, rather than the most compliant.

Looks like the Toronto Transit Commision (probably Orion's most loyal customer) will be scrambling to choose a new manufacturer (either New Flyer or Nova Bus).

Well I am not a big Orion fan, but this is bad news for their employee and Orion fans. Now, most of my favorite transit builders ( GMC/TMC, Flixible and Neoplan) are gone now, and I am cool with only four, so this news is not the end of the world for me.